Warm air heating

MrOneLung

Looking to tap into the CL knowledge bank. 

Been looking at properties and seen one we quite like but it has warm air heating rather than radiators. 

Reckon house was built in the 80’s

anyone got a house with this system?

any positives and negatives? 

Are they easy to maintain and service? 

ross1

Had a house on the late 60s with warm air heating. It may have got better but then it was useless.
It was a three storey house and the heating came through small air panels, not very good and the heating rises to the top of the house and we had to buy a small heater for the lounge which was on the bottom floor.
I personally would never touch a house with warm air again, unless it has improved vastly since then.
Hope this helps

Alwaysneil

Had warm air heating in a rented flat once, ans a friend had it in his flat. Awful. 

Gasman

Awful systems, budget to replace with a radiator system. 

Rob7Lee

Really depends on the system. A lot of houses in Bickley have warm air, these are £1m+ houses and still have it so it works, quite expensive to run and maintain generally.

Hal1x

Gotta be better than storage radiators, house lovely and warm when you are at work, bloody freezing when you get in.

Stig

I don't know if they've got any better, but the first maintenance job we did on our current house was to rip out the warm air heating and have proper central heating put in.  The chief problem we found was that the warm air rose to the ceiling; it was nice and snug up there, down on the ground where we were though it often got quite chilly. 

StrikerFirmani

I had a house in Bickley built in the 60's with warm air heating & ripped it out & replaced with a wet system. One of the problems the ducting on the joints leak warm air and when the thermostat control cut off you would get cold air coming in through the vents. The joints although crimped with galvanised metal have gummed tape wrapped around that perishes over decades.

Basically 60' & 70's houses with warm air didn't have the best quality ducting. 80's would have better because of improved standards. 

The boiler wasn't efficient either so another reason to change the system.  

  

CatfordCat

I used to have a house (built early 80s) with warm air central heating, which meant I had hot water on electric / economy 7 and an electric shower rather than off the hot water tap.

Couldn't say if this was more / less expensive than the alternatives as moved to a flat when I moved back south (it's obvious the flat here was built with warm air system, but had been converted to a conventional gas boiler / radiator system some time before I moved in.)

I needed a gas fire in the living room as well in the winter, and the layout of the house meant that about 3/4 of the way up the stairs (ground floor ceiling height) was the warmest spot in the house (i knew it was cold when the cats took root there.)

Not sure about the maintenance aspect - from a non technical viewpoint, I wonder if there's less to go wrong with a gas warm air boiler than there is with a system with a boiler that pumps water around and has radiators and everything (although where i am now, the conventional gas boiler wasn't brand new when i moved in 20 years ago, and it's needed one repair in all the time i've been here.)

There may not be so many service engineers who know their way around them, and getting parts might be an issue - I never had a problem with the one I had, but that was 20+ years ago now.  There are a few gas engineers out there who specialise in keeping older boilers going, but may be worth some research in the area where you are (or where this house is.)

fenlandaddick

Just a load of hit air mate, get something better

cafcfan

Jeez.this takes me back. I had a house in Swanley back in the 70s with warm air heating. All the vents were downstairs and upstairs just relied upon the warm air going up the stair well. It was horrible.

blackpool72

Stig said:

I don't know if they've got any better, but the first maintenance job we did on our current house was to rip out the warm air heating and have proper central heating put in.  The chief problem we found was that the warm air rose to the ceiling; it was nice and snug up there, down on the ground where we were though it often got quite chilly. 

Get Bunk beds and sleep up top.
Problem solved. 

fadgadget

The Ferrier Estate had this type of heating , the Pharaoh  Ants loved it .

ct_addick

Have warm air heating here in States....we also have central air conditioning as it gets hot and humid in Summer.....works well but our house was built in 2000 so imagine well insulated and we have ceiling fans which help recirculate the warm air